After adding four new players this window, boss would like to see outgoings
After an understandably poor 2024/25 Premier League campaign and mixed progress in our European Champions League adventure, some eyebrows were raised when manager Pep Guardiola admitted that he aimed to work with a smaller first team XI squad in the coming 2025/26 season.
Having been ravaged by a succession of injuries to key players in the first half of the season that seriously effected our form and momentum and ultimately cost us another tilt at the Premier League title, it sounded counter intuitive to not ensure that we used the various squad caps to their capacity with talent and experience, but Guardiola has again recently doubled down on the idea of keeping to a smaller more tight knit group.
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With the club continuing its Club World Cup campaign out in the United States this summer, victory over Al Ain in the most recent match put us through to the knockout stages, and we are already bedding in our new captures from the first transfer window of the summer as we moved quickly for Rayan Ait-Nouri, Rayan Cherki, Marcus Bettinelli and Tijjani Reijnders, but we are also welcoming back the likes of Oscar Bobb after his injury hit season, and Claudio Echeverri.
As Guardiola spoke to the media he acknowledged that having now added to the group it was certainly too big to manage across the four competitions that we will again be gunning for come August and he knew that he had to be pretty ruthless in his decisions, as ultimately it was his choice that he did not want unhappy and uninvolved players around the camp. Players like Jack Grealish who are not part of the travelling Club World Cup group have long been expected to depart this summer, and the gaffer is not hiding the fact that several first team stars will be moving on either permanently or on loan before August if he gets his way.
Amidst his words having already seen club stalwart and legend, Kevin de Bruyne, move on, even Ilkay Gundogan is the latest player to be linked with a switch as reports in Turkey suggest that Galatasaray are very interested in bringing him in. Whilst Pep would not be drawn on Gundogan's own future, stating simply that 'no news is good news' it will do nothing to quell the speculation or stop some fans from worrying.
The player himself was stronger in denying the possibility of leaving for a second time, and insisted that he still had a good few years left in him yet when it came to life at football's top table, but with our recent additions now taking the overall roster to more than 30 outfield players, even with our spending every player will ultimately have a price and whilst we would naturally be more reticent to move some on ahead of others, decisions will have to be taken based on the actual interest that is generated.
That may mean that our hand is forced on one or two, but everyone will be trying to resist that as the ultimate aim for next season is to reestablish our dominance and get back to success.